Baffies—not bathies—is a Scottish term for the slippers you might wear in the morning to and from the shower, cooking breakfast, or doing just about anything during the transition from barefootedness to having real shoes on. This is part of a complete episode.read more »

An American who worked as an au pair in Italy found that children there didn’t seem to react so positively to fun sayings like, “No way, Jose” or “Ready, Freddie?” Yet some research suggests we’re primed to love rhyme. This is part of a complete episode.read more »

We got a call from a nurse named Nancy who, what do you know, grew up reading a book called Nurse Nancy. Is there a book you read as a child that influenced your career choices? This is part of a complete episode.read more »

Office workers in Richmond, Virginia, are having a dispute: Is the appliance that makes the coffee a coffee pot or a coffee maker? This is a classic case of synecdoche, where a single part—like the pot that holds the hot coffee—is used to refer to the whole object. This is part of a complete episode.read more »

In observance of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, copies of his First Folio will be touring all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico, for the public to see. It seems fitting, considering what D.H. Lawrence wrote about the Bard: “When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder that such trivial people should muse and [...]read more »

Eat the Grindstone 03/20/2015: The books we love as children may influence our careers more than we realize. As a child, Martha was fascinated with stories of cracking codes,... [more]

Pickle Seeder 03/13/2015: Would you rather live in a world with no adjectives ... or no verbs — and why? Also, who in the world is that director... [more]

Green-Eyed Monster 03/06/2015: We often hear that English is going to hell in a handbasket. Actually, though, linguistic handwringing about sinking standards and sloppy speech has been going... [more]

Blind Tiger 02/27/2015: When you pick up a book of poems, how many do you read in one sitting? Some people devour several in a row, while others... [more]

Idiom's Delight 02/20/2015: A recent study found that some names crop up more frequently than others in certain professions. The name William is especially common among attorneys--and graphic... [more]